When the Doctor entered the lab he could see that Rose hadn't bothered to clean up after herself. The cable from his power supply and running to the next room was in plain sight. That would make at least part of what he had to do easier.
"So you used my power source for your spare dimension cannon," he observed as he walked over to survey the damage.
"It was handy, my budget paid for it, why not?" she challenged, daring him to find fault with her reasoning.
He rubbed his jaw ignoring her tone, not wanting a fight. He wasn't pleased with what had been done. The splice he was looking at was amateurish at best, downright incompetent would be a better description. He was amazed they hadn't blown the power supply.
He retrieved his tool kit and went to work, hoping Rose would get bored watching him and leave. It didn't work.
"What are you doing now? I thought you had everything ready." Rose asked impatiently
The Doctor looked up from his work. "I need to determine how much damage your team did and fix it. It would be best if you left and got yourself another tea or something so I can concentrate."
She frowned at the suggestion. "You don't have to check it out. They knew what they were doing. You're just stalling."
The Doctor sighed and shook his head. "Look, we are here early so we don't have problems with power flows. I've already found one problem. It's vital I make sure there isn't any more damage. We are only going to have one shot at this, so everything needs to be correct the first time, we won't get another chance."
Rose looked at him with disgust one her face. "The Doctor could throw this kind of thing together in minutes, what's wrong with you?"
He rubbed the back of his neck trying to get the increasing tension out of it. "Nothing's wrong with me. If I had the endless supply of technologies that is stored in the TARDIS I could throw it together too, but I don't. I don't even have a sonic screwdriver. Things that he can do with the sonic, I have to do by hand and check visually."
The Doctor shook his head as he morbidly thought to himself. "He also has more than a few hours of life left to correct any mistakes. Where my only advantage is I won't be living with any of my mistakes, at least not for long."
"Alright, I'll buy that, but why can't I stay?" Rose asked petulantly.
"Because I need to concentrate and I can't do that when I am constantly being distracted by your questions and fidgeting."
Rose, chagrined, put down the hand whose index finger she had been using to twirl her hair. "I need to check my messages. My power being cut yesterday caused me to forget to do that. I'll be back in an hour." She shot him an accusing look and turned toward the door.
"Good, I should be ready by then." The Doctor replied with a wave of his hand.
"You'd better be. I don't want you putting this off another day," she shot back over her shoulder as she left the lab.
"I don't want to either," thought the Doctor. He took a deep breath and went back to work repairing the splice. A chill went down his spine as he came upon a mass of melted metal and composite materials in the center of the cable.
The power which Rose had attempted to fire the cannon at was much higher than what he had felt. Because of the ineptitude of her technicians, most of the power from the supply had been lost in the inefficient join. If not for them he would have died in Pete's lab yesterday and Tony would have been alone with him when he perished.
He felt a tightness in his chest and swallowed hard against the thought of his young friend having to witness his death. He shook himself, pushing that thought away. He didn't have time to think about disasters that might have happened. He needed to concentrate on the job in front of him to prevent a future one.
Once he finished repairing the splice, he checked over the console he had built. He had borrowed the basic design from the TARDIS, a bit of nostalgia on his part, lots of bits and pieces that appeared to have been added at random. No labels or anything to indicate what a specific control was for. Only he could operate it. He powered it up. Rose's technicians hadn't touched it. He felt as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, everything was as it should be.
He then checked the computer network. Rose had managed to obtain for him full administrative privileges on every computer in the Torchwood network. Those that were turned off he could power up remotely, a few needed to have that done. He was going to need the computing power of all the computers linked together in a dynamic neural network. This network was actually the most critical part of his design.
The dimension cannon had been reworked by him to be controlled with a probability computation engine. That engine would determine the most probable place particles of the barriers between universes weren't; it would then align particles of Rose with those spots, finessing her through the barriers to universe prime. In theory it was possible to do, though the odds of it actually working were astronomical. Still it was the best chance he had of sending Rose back and not destroying everything in the process.
The neural network would do the majority of the work. Any anomalies, places where the predicted empty space didn't occur would be handled by him. He hoped he was up to it, that he hadn't let his arrogance put everything at risk. The coral in his pocket sang reassuringly. It would be here to help.
He put his hand on it and thanked it. "Not long now, it will be over soon. Then we can finally rest." He could almost see the coral smiling. Funny how its messages were becoming clearer now that each of them had so little energy left.
He thought about what he needed to check next and realized there was nothing left. But rather than be reassured by that fact it gave him an oddly disconcerting feeling of anxiety. He felt he should be checking something, given the importance of what he was about to try.
He sat down, looked up at the ceiling, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, forcing himself to relax. Nervousness was just wasted energy. Conservation of energy was the watchword for him now.
"I thought you had work to do?" The sharpness of Rose's words caused the Doctor to jump up from the chair, startled, his cane clattering to the floor. "I come back and I find you doing nothing."
"That's because I am done. I was just waiting for you," replied the Doctor as he bent down and picked up his cane.
"I am here now, so let's get going. I've waited too long for this."
"It's ready and waiting for you." The Doctor gestured towards the transfer platform as he walked towards the control panel leaning heavily on the cane for support.
Rose smiled. She was wearing the same blue leather jacket she had worn when his brother had left her on the beach, she appeared to have taken some of the time he had spent preparing the dimension cannon to reapply her make-up. It was bright, on the borderline of garish, designed to attract attention. He wished his brother good luck with her.
He powered up the equipment. The first phase was to put Rose in a stasis field so the transfer would seem instantaneous from her point of view, one moment here, the next in universe prime, the same one as his brother.
That step accomplished it was time to do the difficult part, the transfer phase. It started slowly at first. The neural network doing the calculations, when an anomaly occurred he would tweak the flow of particles. To his amazement it was actually working even though he was hampered by having to use the cane to maneuver around the control panel. His free hand flew over the counsel his long fingers making reaches that would have been impossible for most.
Soon the transfer was thirty percent complete. The anomalies were coming faster, he was starting to tire but he was still able to cope, the coral was singing, helping to keep his mind clear and focused on the task at hand, supporting him as his energy was being destroyed by the cannon. Rose's little trick the day before had obliterated any safety margin he had. It was going to go right down to the wire.
At fifty percent his fatigue was becoming too much for him to ignore. He was missing some of the anomalies, resulting in tiny tears in the fabric of reality. His cane fell to the floor as he made a desperate attempt to reach a control before yet another tear occurred. He made it, but now he had to lean on the console for support, he didn't have time to retrieve the cane. Just as well he was needed two hands now more often than not. He leaned his thighs against the edge of the console to take some of his weight as both his hand became fully engaged.
Then the neural net had a failure. A power fluctuation had destroyed a few of the network's packets when they were transmitted, the delay caused by their having to be resent resulted in a computation not being completed in time. The number of anomalies created was overwhelming. His breathing was labored as he fought against the panic that rose in his throat. His vision started to blur as the dimension cannon added its relentless assault to the burdens of the failing Doctor.
He felt the coral send him a little bit of energy in an effort to help him, but it wasn't enough. He couldn't fix all the anomalies the missed calculation had caused. He couldn't even fix a tenth of them. Reality was starting to tear. He'd failed. The decision he had hoped to never have to make was now in front of him, unavoidable.
He could revert the dimension cannon to its original function and finish pushing Rose through by brute force, ripping all of reality again, causing multiple universes to collapse, this second wound so close to the first would be unable to heal. Rose would be saved, but only for the short time until all of reality was destroyed. His other option was to stop the transmission before it was too late and destroying Rose. Bringing her back was not an option.
It was a terrible choice, because he knew the right decision, but was loath to make it. Then the part of him that was Donna came to the fore. Donna, wonderful, brilliant, Donna who realized the Vespiform wouldn't listen to reason and had to be killed. He felt as if now her hand was on his, as it had been on his brother's when they blew up Mount Vesuvius causing tens of thousands of people to die, many of whom they knew, so millions of others could be saved. With Donna's strength of purpose in him, he pressed the control that he had hoped he would never have to use.
He heard a scream, it must have been the cannon. It couldn't have been Rose, she should have felt nothing. "Please let it be the cannon." He prayed. No one deserved to feel what had happened to Rose. She was gone now, her subatomic particles scattered across several universes, to be used to heal the tears that had been created. There was no visible trace of her here. No one on this world would know of his failure and her death. He hoped that would spare Jackie some pain.
His body was failing, each breath like lifting a tremendous weight, his vision almost gone, everything a shade of gray, his limbs leaden. The coral cried, wounded by the energy flows around them as the Doctor fell heavily to his knees, cracking them on the floor.
His throat was tight as he tried to swallow, he was furious at himself for failing to consider just how weak he would become when he created his design. The controls he needed now were in the middle of the console. If he'd had any sense he would have put them on the floor. No matter how he sick felt, it was necessary he stand back up and finish his job.
He reached for the console edge, his hand slipped on the smooth surface as he tried to pull himself up. That arrogance in his design again, he never thought a few handicap grab rails might come in handy. He sat there on his knees, his legs folded under him as he looked around through the dense fog that now served as his vision, desperate for an answer.
He saw a vague shape, his cane lying on the floor. He reached for it and clumsily knocked it further away. He teared up as the frustration and pain threatened to become more than he could bear. He reached out again, stretching his arm to its fullest, not wanting to give up his seated position in his weakened state. He managed to get a finger on the rubber tip of the cane. He dug a nail into the soft material and gained the slightest of purchases.
Carefully he teased the cane towards him, sliding it slowly across the floor till finally he could put his full hand on it. Aching, but relieved he took the cane in both hands and pushed himself up off the floor, fighting with gravity until he was standing upright however unsteadily.
He felt along the console till he found the recessed button he needed, pressing it would send a command to all the computers to run an erasure program on the hard drives. It would finish up by flashing all the firmware, rendering the computers useless. A worm would be implanted in the network routers that would cause any computer that logged on before midnight tonight to meet the same fate. Any plans for the dimension cannon, at least the electronic ones, would be totally destroyed.
He pressed it, and saw a vague pulsing. It was how the red flashing indicator light he had installed to verify that the program had been launched appeared to him now. He felt it with his fingers, sensing the heat generated by flashing, unwilling to trust his failing eyesight. His relief was so great he felt himself go weak kneed.
Again he found himself on the floor, unsure as to how he had gotten there. He seemed to have lost a few minutes. Just one more thing he had to accomplish and he was done. He knew he had to stand, when all he wanted to do was lie down. In fact, he realized, he already was lying down. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees coughing from the effort, his throat burning and raw.
Thankfully he felt the cane was next to his hand. He sat back on his heels and caught his breath. There was a pounding on the door or perhaps it was just in his head. He was pretty sure Rose had locked the lab so he should have a bit more time. He pushed up on the cane again and staggered to his feet.
The next control he needed should be easy to find it was large and mushroom shaped. He heard a crack behind him as he found the button's smooth surface. He put both hands on it and leaned. The power supply surged with all the energy Rose could have ever wanted.
Only what it did now was destroy both dimension cannons with a power spike so large the resulting heat burnt out the circuits and slagged all the metal parts of both cannons, rendering them useless inert lumps. Destroying them thoroughly as he had asked Rose to do when he had first arrived in this universe. He needed no indicator light to verify his success. The sound of circuits sparking and the acrid smell of ozone and burnt plastic that permeated the lab was all the confirmation he needed.
He was done. Gratefully he slid to the floor. The only project Torchwood had left was the global climate one. All the data for that was safe on Pete's isolated computer. With Rose gone there was no champion for the dimension cannon and even if there was, they would have to start from scratch. Pete should be able to show a much better return for their resources than any competing project. It was up to him now.
Finally the Doctor could relax, rest, at last let go. He curled up on his side, his now useless eyes closed. His body felt like it was on fire. The coral was whimpering from pain and exhaustion. He sent the last of the energy he had to it.
He heard the door crash open. Pete's voice calling to him, hands rolling him onto his back, pressing on his chest, trying to get his lungs to breathe, his heart to beat. He wanted to push them away, let them know he was ready, his time was over, but he had no strength for it. Then it was as if he was lying on red grass, feeling the warmth of a double sun on his face. It was the coral comforting him with the memory of a home he had never seen as he sank into oblivion.
Alone, the coral screamed out its suffering and anguish across the universes reaching out to the only other consciousness it had known as it joined the Doctor in death.
The Doctor was working on the Helmic Regulator when the TARDIS informed him the end had finally come. The fact that the message had been delivered with a splitting headache that caused him to drop his sonic screwdriver, indicated how upset she was.
When his brother had first awakened the coral and tried to connect it with the parallel universe's energy, it had cried in agony and reached across the universes connecting to its mother, the TARDIS, in a thin line of communication that somehow navigated the barriers between the universes without breaching them.
From then on he'd had full knowledge of what has happening to his brother in the parallel world. Rose's initial refusal to accept him, the brief time they appeared to be getting along, and her ultimate rejection of him. He knew of the toll the parallel universe had exacted on his brother's body. He'd stood by helplessly as the deterioration was accelerated by Rose's experimentation with the dimension cannon.
It was as if he had been watching a mud slide. So slow he felt there must be time to stop its devastation. Yet so much momentum towards the impending disaster there was nothing he could do but hope some miracle, some unforeseen circumstance, would intervene.
The TARDIS had been upset with the situation her only child had been put in. She rankled at its failure to grow, the shortness of its life. She pushed on the Doctor's mind to do something to save the situation, to fix it, to allow her child live. But there was nothing he could do. If he breached the universes again everything would be lost.
Then, when Rose had fired up the dimension cannon again with the coral and his brother at the end of their lives, the TARDIS took matters into her own hands. She tried to send massive amounts of energy from universe prime through the communications link to the coral. It was like using a fire hose to push water through a hypodermic needle. Vast amounts of energy had spilled across the universes with only a few ergs actually getting through to her child.
The TARDIS had depleted itself and barely had enough fuel left to limp back to the rift. The Doctor wasn't sure if the rough landing had been due to a lack of fuel or the TARDIS' mood. Either way he had cracked a rib and sprained his left wrist upon arriving.
He had decided to distract himself, working on the TARDIS, while she refueled and maintained the death watch over his brother and the coral. The distraction however proved insufficient as the anxiety of the TARDIS pervaded her interior. Light, heat, all her services became erratic as she, frustrated and powerless, waited for the end.
He was relieved it was over and hated himself for feeling that way. His brother had taken on an impossible assignment. An assignment the Doctor should have taken care of himself, he loved Rose, though not the way she wanted. He thought his brother could fulfill her desires giving her what he could not.
His brother instead ended up being sacrificed on the altar of his incompetence, his reluctance to deal with Rose himself. His brother could have stayed here in universe prime, the coral would have grown into a TARDIS and there was a better than good chance, his brother would have absorbed enough universe prime energy to have regenerated into a full Timelord, with a full Timelord lifespan and set of regenerations.
His brother had selflessly given up that chance. Instead he took on the assignment to save Rose for him. His brother was to take care of her, keep her happy, distract her from trying to get back. A fool's mission as it had turned out. Rose had tossed him aside. His possibility of a Timelord life had been sacrificed in vain.
He looked down at the deck of the control room as an unwelcome thought entered his mind. Davros was right. He turned his companions into weapons. Rose had become an out of control weapon, so single minded in her goal, she was oblivious to the destruction she caused.
His brother, the weapon that stopped her, self-destructing in the process. Tears ran down his face as he thought of Rose and all the mistakes he'd made with her. If he had never entered her life she would be alive today maybe married and having children.
He constantly worried about technologies falling into the hands of civilizations not yet ready for them. He forgot to do the same for individuals, especially individuals he liked. Rose had lacked the maturity to handle the knowledge he had given her. He had been as responsible for her destruction as if he had set the switch which killed her himself. His brother had merely been his hand.
He gave a short snort of laughter at that irony, sadly shaking his head. His brother having started as his hand had ended up acting as it. Seeming so young, so eager to please, taking on way too much, too early, never having a chance to enjoy his very existence as he had deserved to.
He had thought his brother would have a good life even if it was destined to be short by Timelord standards. Instead it had been a nightmare of desperation, trying to accomplish an impossible task as Rose had run amok.
The Doctor's ruminations were broken by the TARDIS starting up her engines. He released the hand brake and let her go her own way; he had a feeling he knew what this was about. She would want things done properly and would give him trouble until they were.
They rematerialized in on a remote island in northern Scotland. An abandoned cabin nearby provided him with what he needed. It was cold and hard work on that windswept isle, it was fitting that it was. The constant sound of the waves crashing, destroying themselves against the rocks, seemed a fitting memorial dirge for his brother. The pyre was completed as the sun began to set.
He had debated what to put on it as a remembrance of his brother. There was nothing in the TARDIS that was really his. He hadn't been there long enough to lay a claim on anything as his own. The Doctor instead chose to use something dear to himself, his sonic, he couldn't quite bring himself to part with his coat and felt a bit ashamed at that fact.
He set the fire when the sun dropped out of sight in the west. He stayed and watched over it as the wind fanned the flames, sending the sparks out into the night. He would remain there until the sun rose again in the east and the last ember had died out. His brother deserved at least that much from him. What Rose deserved, he would think about later. One thing he did know, the TARDIS didn't care.